Come-ona My House!

In the late 1980s, we were beginning to feel that our house was a little too small again. With one child in junior high, one in elementary school, and another in nursery school, and both of us working, it seemed a good time to look around. We went to quite a few open houses before visiting a 2 1/2 story house with ugly siding near SonShineIn’s school.

With some help from a couple of agents, we were able to sell our house and, on one of the hottest days of the year, move into our new one. It was actually the oldest house we’ve ever owned, having been built in 1905 (the first three were all built between 1910 and 1920). Although we still had only one bathroom, each of the children now had a private room and there were a couple of extra spaces on the third floor for excess books, etc. The nearby school was a K-8 magnet with an open school philosophy, and after a very brief sojourn at another open school, Cordeliaknits was reassigned there for third grade. When Sisterfilms started school it was a foregone conclusion that she would also be going there, so she is the only member of our family to have spent the first 9 years of school in the same building.

Here’s a picture of the three in the backyard. The older two delighted in dressing Sisterfilms up in outlandish outfits.

When we sold the house to move to Maine, it was to a contractor who had already spent several years fixing up the duplex next door. Five years later and finally on the market (just sold a couple of weeks ago), the house is unrecognizable from the outside, and only a few vintage features on the first floor remain to remind us of the house we lived in. (here’s a photo I snaffled in case the link is no longer active)

We did a fair amount of entertaining in that house, beginning with hosting the annual post-Showboat party for our church, continuing with my 40th birthday party, Thanksgivings and Christmases, confirmations, graduations, and children’s birthday parties. So here’s the song: Come-ona My House, sung by its composer, Ross Bagdasarian (later famous as David Seville of Chipmunks fame) and his cousin William Saroyan, the novelist, short-story writer and playwright of My Name is Aram, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, The Human Comedy, and The Time of Your Life. Of course, the song was made famous by Rosemary Clooney.

The House I Live(d) In

As the 70s drew to a close, we were expecting a second child and did not see how we could fit another into Tiny House, so we began thinking about moving. One evening on his way to choir practice, Onkel Hankie Pants was detoured from his usual route and spotted this house for sale by owner.

Once again, we have a photo of the house taken after we left it – the new owner wanted it painted blue and reroofed in grey, whereas the house we lived in was white with a green roof. We were excited to be moving into a house with three bedrooms and a double parlor plus a dining room, with a kitchen big enough for a table. When we moved out of this house 8 1/2 years later, I was just shy of 40 and had lived in this house longer than I had lived in any one place in my life. We brought two baby girls home to this house on the corner. Our older two children had many friends in the neighborhood, there was a park nearby, and we could walk to church if we got up early enough.

This neighborhood was rich in economic diversity. There were a number of houses much nicer than ours, and others smaller and more modest. Across the street was a family in scattered-site public housing, while a few doors away lived Garrison Keillor’s sister. So I thought an appropriate song for our third house would be “The House I Live In,” with words by Lewis Allen (real name Abel Meeropol, the man who adopted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s sons after the execution) and music by Earl Robinson. I like Paul Robeson’s version.

Tuneful Tuesday: All I Know about Math and Science I Learned from Songs

Well, that’s not quite true. But it did occur to me that there are some fun songs dealing with math and science, two subjects about which I actually know fairly little. I’d be happy to hear suggestions about some more songs in this vein.

As young teenagers, my friends and I often listened to Tom Lehrer records. My friend The Decorator’s claim to fame was that Lehrer had been her father’s math TA at Harvard. (In the second clip, Lehrer speaks amusingly about his job.) He must have been a good instructor, since said father had a successful banking career. The first Tom Lehrer song, however, deals with chemistry, in fact, the Periodic Table. (Click on link to go to YouTube.)

Tom Lehrer: The Elements

I actually did study a form of New Math, the subject of the next song. In 9th grade, we learned algebra from Mr. Spencer and the SMSG (School Mathematics Study Group) from Yale. (Yes, kids, even though we were so much smarter in other ways, we didn’t get algebra till 9th grade.) In 10th grade, it was geometry from Ball State in Muncie, Indiana, with Mr. Swett. But in 11th grade I was in a different school and had a “normal” Algebra II text, and Mr. Reisinger, who came from Pocatello, Idaho to teach in Germany. My experience with college math is one I would rather not discuss.  Here’s Lehrer on

New Math

Back to chemistry, here is a great song about what happens when two elements combine. I believe the late Kate McGarrigle wrote this song, and sings it here.

NaCl

I couldn’t think of any songs about biology or physics or geology, but there are two fine songs about astronomy.  Why Does the Sun Shine? was written by Tom Glazer (who also wrote On Top of Spaghetti). This rather better-known recording is by They Might Be Giants, who have also issued an update song with more current scientific information, The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma.  And now for something completely different (well, not that different really) -- The Galaxy Song  by Eric Idle of Monty Python, but done here with some fine scientific photos by Dave Hardy and Colin Farrow (about whom I know nothing else.)  I hope someone enjoys this Tuneful Tuesday.

Techie Talk: I Like the Chrome, So Far

A few months ago, I started making use of Picasa, the Google photo-filing and -sharing program, to post my trove of family photos and invite relatives to view it.  While discussing with Sisterfilms whether this would necessitate said relatives' signing up with Google, she said, "That's OK. In a few years everything will be Google anyway."  Well, that day is a bit closer now, with the release yesterday of their new web browser, Chrome. I downloaded and installed it this morning, and so far, I like it. 

I've been using Mozilla Firefox as my default browser for a few years now, with occasional forays into Microsoft Internet Explorer for certain websites that don't seem to work with Firefox. By and large I've been happy with it, although I sometimes had trouble with certain video or audio things that didn't work.  I'll need to do some more exploring with Chrome to see if that sort of problem occurs. And, since it's still a beta-testing application, I am not yet making it my default browser.

One thing I like is that it's easy to read and easy to use, without much clutter on the screen. There is one search box into which you can type either a URL or a search term -- that will save me many daily mouse-clicks right there.  My Google Calendar, which had been displaying oddly in Firefox, looks nice and is easily readable in Chrome.  (I should note I've been playing around a bit with my screen resolution settings to make The Master Genealogist work better, and this has played some havoc with other sites and programs.  It would be nice if Microsoft or somebody would come up with a way to attach the best resolution to each program.)

For a listing of pros and cons, go here.  I am reserving judgment on the "Google will know everything about you" issue. For one thing, I think they already do. Yesterday Onkel Hankie Pants was perusing the St. Paul Pioneer Press website for news of the RNC protests in St. Paul, when he was surprised to see a coupon from our local (ME/NH only) supermarket!  Besides, I really have little or nothing to hide.  (Please, Mr. FBI Agent, I can explain why I looked at the YouTube video of the Italian Communist song Bandiera Rossa. It all started back in 1966 when The Boss learned the song from an Italian friend. It stuck in my head, popping up occasionally. Then I was reading one of Donna Leon's Venetian detective novels and someone said "Avanti!" which apparently means "Come in," as well as "Forward!" Well, of course I had to look up the song. Really! I'm a Democrat!)

Anyway, I will report further from time to time if it seems appropriate.

Friday Five: Revelation

Sally at RevGalBlogPals has this to challenge us this week:

With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently.

So with no further waffle I offer you this week's Friday 5:

How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:

1. Book: I haven't been doing a lot of spiritual reading lately, mostly mysteries and some non-fiction dealing with economics (in a fairly superficial way). But one mystery I read was a sort of revelation: Signs in the Blood by Vicki Lane. You can read my full review on www.goodreads.com or DorothyL but what I didn't mention was this. In the book, the protagonist, a lapsed Episcopalian who hasn't been to church except for weddings and funerals for years, goes with one of her mountain neighbors to a Holiness "signs following" church -- yes, snake-handlers. She doesn't end up joining them, but she does have a revelation that there really is "church" going on here -- not just in the ecstasy but in the prayers and sense of community she observes. It was a good message for one who's sometimes tempted to think that her own way of worship is the best or only way.

2.Film: This is hard too. Lately I've mostly been watching Foyle's War and Due South (TV shows) and while they have many admirable characters, it seems a stretch to call them God-revealers. However, a few weeks ago Onkel Hankie Pants and I watched Elmer Gantry. Did I already blog about this? Anyway, the ambiguity in the character of Elmer Gantry was a big surprise to me, and the character's actions in the last part of the film left me wondering exactly where he was going next. Although the general wisdom seems to be that he went off to perpetrate more religious scams on a gullible public, and this may indeed have been Sinclair Lewis's idea, I wonder. The possibility for redemption is there, and that is a sign of God's work.

3. Song: Last year when I was taking a Bible study on Revelation, I went through my music and made a Revelation Mix playlist of songs referencing that book of the Bible. There are 100 items on it and I don't know for sure that I got them all. (Of course, there are several renditions of I'll Fly Away included.) It's hard to pick a favorite, but in honor of Brunswick's recent CUBA WEEK (our sister city is Trinidad, Cuba) I'll post this video of one of my favorites, My Lord, What a Morning.


4. Another person: My daughter, Sisterknits, reveals God to me over and over in her many phone calls. She has many thoughtful insights about her studies in film and child development and life in general. And, she gave me and her sister a Virtual Easter Basket -- a contribution to help train and equip midwives in Third World countries.

5. Creation: I saw my first robin this morning! (This year, that is.) The return of spring, indeed of every season, reminds me of God's promise to Noah and lifts my heart.

Bonus answer: your choice- share something encouraging/ amazing/ humbling that has happened to you recently! I've been posting reviews of mystery books to DorothyL and goodreads for a while now, and it happens fairly often that the authors of the books will contact me and thank me for a good review, which is humbling - A Published Arthur! Thanking me! -- but recently I've had a couple of other folks also email me that they liked my reviews and that is encouraging.